The problem this study addresses is the key factors which have played an important role in the growth of small Indian retailers situated in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg. More particularly, the intention was to examine what role marketing played in this growth. The main reason for undertaking this study is that it seems that many small Indian retailers appeared to have exhibited growth despite having been affected by Apartheid and other problems commonly associated with being small. This study is unique in that it studies growth ie. a positive phenomenon amidst difficult situations ie. Apartheid and problems that are inherent in being small. This problem is explored by firstly analysing literature on the history of small Indian retailers in South Africa with the intention of identifying possible factors which may have played an important role in their growth. Stemming from this exploratory study into the history of small Indian trade in South Africa were the following factors which seemed to have played an important role in their growth: a. business experience and skills, b. hard work and support especially from family members, c. good knowledge of the needs of Indian customers, d. superior service, e. competitive prices, f. keeping overheads low, g. adequate capital possessed particularly by small Passenger Indian retailers, h. effectively identifying and exploiting opportunities. Secondly, the literature was once again explored to ascertain and examine factors which have been known to play an important role in business and more specifically small business growth. Having examined the literature, it was found that such growth factors could be grouped under six broad headings viz. Personal, Marketing, Financial, Technical, Management, and General. Relating what seemed to have played an important role historically in South Africa in the growth of small Indian retailers to what has been known to play an important role in small business growth generally, it was found that there were a number of common associations. Hence, this allowed for the generation of the following hypotheses: The growth of small Indian retailers in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg was because of: Hypothesis I (HI) - Personal Factors, Hypothesis 2 (H2) - Financial Factors, Hypothesis 3 (H3) - Marketing Factors, Hypothesis 4 (H4) - Management Factors, Hypothesis 5 (H5) - Technical Factors, Hypothesis 6 (H6) - General Factors. A survey was conducted in two areas which were part of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg and are often referred to as the 'hub' of Indian retailer activity in Pietermaritzburg with a high concentration of small Indian retailers. The areas in question were the 'bottom end of town' which included all those businesses in Church Street between East and Retief Streets; the other area included businesses in Old Greytown Road between Naidoo and Allandale Roads. A total of 67 small retailers were interviewed who survived for at least three years, were in business during the Apartheid era, and exhibited some form of growth during this period. Cluster/area samples were chosen on the basis of convenience and judgement to suit the financial and time constraints of the study; and elements were included in the sample randomly but in proportion to the size of their clusters/areas in the total cluster/area population. The 67 businesses studied were classified as low, medium, and high growth using Hatten's (1997) and Walker's (1988) growth models. There were 31 low growth, 32 medium growth, and 4 high growth businesses. The most important factors in this study were found to be in order of importance: personal, financial, marketing, management, and technical. In addition, the results of the qualitative study revealed that Culture and Religion, Group Areas, and past business experience also played an important role in business growth, in this study. The 'top ten' sub factors in this study were found to be: Honesty, Hard Work, Commitment, Involvement, Common Sense, A belief in Superior Quality and Service, Learning from Failure, Knowledge of Business and Market, Adequate Capital, Price. In testing the hypotheses, using the Chi-squared test, it was found that there were significant relationships between business growth and personal, financial, marketing, management, and technical factors, at the 95% confidence level. For all factors, using the Chi-squared test, significant differences, and high frequency counts were apparent at levels of importance thus suggesting that all factors studied were at least important in the growth of small Indian retailers situated in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg. The results of this study may be useful to: a. prospective small business people wanting to increase their chances of growth, b. those small businesses that want to increase their growth, c. those small businesses experiencing growth problems, d. small business operators from disadvantaged backgrounds, e. organisations involved in small business development, support, and training. The limitations of this study include: a. the lack of a pre-prepared sampling frame, b. unique results which may not be applicable to other small businesses, c. lack of literature on small business growth and the history of Indian trade in South Africa, d. inapplicability of the chi-square test for businesses in the high growth category due to a small cell size, e. restricted response from the Likert scale measurement used. / Thesis (M.Comm.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

The decline of employment globally with various countries and economies either in recession, post recession or on the brink of recession is a serious concern to governments, the private sector, civic organizations and the general population. Associated with this decline are dynamics of poverty, food insecurity, maladministration and corruption, civil war, and a new world order. Governments are now looking to implement and support successful solutions that have been tried and tested. It has been identified that franchising is successful solution that is on the increase globally. Franchising is a multibillion dollar revenue creator globally and accounts significantly for employment. The automotive sector is growing at an unprecedented rate with the greater number of motor cycles, cars, taxis, busses and trucks on the road. The Midas franchise is the second fastest growing franchise in South Africa. There are more than two hundred and twenty franchises in South Africa and surrounding countries. The aim of this research study is to investigate if franchising provides entrepreneurs, especially new business owners a more secure business start up, and to assess the success of the Midas franchise. The research methodology adopted in this study adopts a qualitative research method. The instruments used to obtain data are questionnaires, face to face interviews, observation and photography. The study area encompasses franchisees from the eThekwini Municipal area. Six Midas franchisees and the KZN regional Midas franchisor have been interviewed. The findings have proven to be remarkable, supporting the hypothesis which states that franchising is a successful tool to assist entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs have citied their contentment with being with a franchisee and their optimism to venture into more franchises. The franchisor boasted their rapid expansion in South Africa. There were also recommendations arising out of the study so as to enhance entrepreneurship and franchising in South Africa. / MBA University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2012.

This study was a qualitative exploration of women’s work – life balance over the life course in retail management. Ten women who worked in the centre management of a mall in Durban were interviewed between June 2011 and August 2011. Through the use of thematic analysis, five themes were identified. These themes are: (a) the integration of work and life roles (b) the career as a learning process which is personally meaningful, (c) the retail industry and people dynamics (d) the value of time and (f) perceived autonomy among options for work and life development. The experiences of the participants were integrated with literature to arrive at an in depth understanding of the experiences of women’s work- life balance within retail. The findings suggest that work-life balance within retail is perceived as a subjective, continuous experience which changes over time. Moreover, there is integration of work and life roles. The study contributes to the evolving body of knowledge on work-life balance of women within the retail sector; it also provides a unique context specific perspective to the understanding of work- life balance. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

Urban informality is a process established by people in the informal urban context to shape existing formal cities to form new informal cities that facilitate their everyday lives. This phenomenon has grown substantially in Latin American, Asian and African cities to a point that people have transformed many of their formal post-colonial cities within these regions to informal cities that can facilitate urban informality. Instead of seeing this process as a way where people living in the informal urban context are trying to create cities and infrastructure that suite their context and way of life, architects and urban design professionals are repeatedly adopting 'western norms‘ to solve urban informality rather than facilitating it. This starts to create a gap between the architectural built form and the way people live. The research was then undertaken to bridge this gap between built form making and the lived realities in the informal urban context by using the underlying principles of urban informality defined by the people to generate meaningful built form within the South African, African context. To achieve this, the research carried out investigations on current literature that dealt with three main principles that defined urban informality that could be used to generate an appropriate built form with the informal urban context. These principles were; socio- economic principles, emergence and the culture of urban informality and these started to suggest a flexible built form that can be adapted by its users to suit their needs. These principles were then tested against precedent and case studies to see their validity in the global and South African context. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a number of professionals that had a better understanding of the case studies than the author to make sure that the analyses and the conclusions based on those analyses were accurate. The research findings ultimately defined an indeterminate built form that is formed through a participatory process between the collaboration of urban design professionals and the future inhabitants of the built form. This built form is 'loosely‘ defined and its inhabitants can manipulate and reconfigure it, to a certain extent, to suit the future unforeseen states of urban informality. The research also outlined a framework that can be applied in the design phase of a multi-purpose trade hub in Durban, South Africa. / M. Arch. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.